1. Field
Apparatuses and methods in accordance with exemplary embodiments relate to a method and device for protecting content in a Wi-Fi direct communication scheme.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Wi-Fi direct communication scheme uses a network arrangement of participating devices where connection is by a peer-to peer scheme between the devices. When using the Wi-Fi direct communication scheme, the Wi-Fi devices do not necessitate connection to, the use of, or participation in a home network, an office network, or a hot spot network. That is, a Wi-Fi direct communication scheme provides direct connection between two devices without the need for any form of an additional individual router, hub, gate, etc. outside the two connecting devices in order to facilitate transmissions.
FIG. 1 illustrates a related art Wi-Fi direct communication scheme.
In FIG. 1, a digital versatile disk (DVD) player 101 uses the Wi-Fi direct communication scheme to transmit content 104 such as music, photos, and moving images to a display devices, for example, to a television (TV) TV1 102 or a TV2 103 which is a display device.
The DVD player 101 may be another device that stores a content, such as Blue-ray player, an MP3 player, a personal computer, personal digital assistant, a mobile device, and a simple storage medium.
The TV1 102 or the TV2 103 may be another device that displays content to a user, such as a monitor and a speaker.
The content 104 may be an original work of authorship such as music, a photo, and a moving image that may be content protected by a copyright.
The Wi-Fi direct (P2P) scheme is not a standard that has been suggested in consideration of a display device. Rather the Wi-Fi direct scheme is a standard that has been suggested on the basis of connectivity between devices. Accordingly, the Wi-Fi direct scheme does not recognize whether a device supports content protection before setting connection between devices.
For example, in the Wi-Fi direct scheme, it is not possible for the DVD player 101 to recognize whether each TV supports content protection before setting up a connection with the TV1 102 and the TV2 103 as depicted in FIG. 1. According to one exemplary embodiment, TV1 102 may be a device that does not supports content protection, while TV2 103 may be a device that does supports content protection. In such an embodiment, if the DVD player 101 connects to the TV1 102 through the Wi-Fi direct scheme and sends the content 104 protected by the copyright to TV1 102 with the instructions for the content to be displayed, a message indicating that the content cannot be replayed on TV1 102 will instead be displayed due to the lack of support for the specific content protection. Thus, when the user desires to replay the content 104 through the DVD player 101, the user may be inconvenienced due to the lost time and energy exerted in the attempt to connect and display the content on TV1 and then the additional wait for the connection between the DVD player 101 and the TV2 103 to occur and then replay the content.
It is also worth noting that even though the TV1 102 does not support content protection and thus cannot replay the content 104, power and time is still consumed when connecting with the DVD player 101.